Photo provided by Bob Marshall/The Lens -- In April, P.J. Hahn walked on one of the mangrove islands that for decades served as nesting sites for brown pelicans and other birds. Once the BP oil killed the mangroves, the islands' erosion rapidly increased.

Photo provided by Bob Marshall/The Lens -- Most of the mangrove islands that were nesting sites in eastern Barataria Bay before the Deepwater Horizon spill four years ago now are open water, while a few others are just slivers of dead breaches and sand.

Coastal Department $3 million short to fix pelican nesting site

Photo provided by Bob Marshall/The Lens -- In April, P.J. Hahn walked on one of the mangrove islands that for decades served as nesting sites for brown pelicans and other birds. Once the BP oil killed the mangroves, the islands' erosion rapidly increased.

Photo provided by Bob Marshall/The Lens -- Most of the mangrove islands that were nesting sites in eastern Barataria Bay before the Deepwater Horizon spill four years ago now are open water, while a few others are just slivers of dead breaches and sand.

This spring, P.J. Hahn pleaded with the Legislature and the state’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority to provide the remaining $3 million of the $6.5 million he needs to rebuild a Cat Island pelican rookery destroyed by BP’s oil spill.

He went home with empty pockets.

But the director of Plaquemines Parish’s Coastal Zone Management Department has decided to start the project anyway. He hopes his actions will be more convincing than his words.

This story was originally published by The Lens, an independent, nonprofit newsroom serving New Orleans. Continue reading full story here.